Pop! Goes the Icon

My friendly neighborhood comic book shop (conveniently, two blocks from my apartment) closes at 7 p.m. I left the office at 6:35 p.m. I made it to Alternate Reality (possibly Las Vegas’ best comic shop) at 6:53 p.m.

Chapter Nine of “Messiah CompleX” was on the featured racks right up front; I picked that up immediately, as planned. I then walked back to the corner of the store where Ralph keeps the new Marvel Comics issues, little “NEW!” tags in front of the day’s fresh bounty. I quickly found Amazing Spider-Man No. 545. Actually, I found a fat stack of it, in both variant covers. After a few moments, I decided to pick up the Marko Djurdjevic cover. On my way out, I grabbed Chapter Six of “Messiah CompleX” as well.

As promised a few days ago on this blog, I bought and read the final chapter of “One More Day” today. And as I predicted right here on this blog (”Joe Quesada Must Die!“, Nov. 29), it was … terrible. Offensive. Repulsive. Insanity.

Oh, the comic was well-written: Touching, well-paced (well, it was a tad bit slow, stretching out what was about four pages worth of plot into 20-odd pages of exposition, but all to emotional effect). It was even well-drawn, Quesada’s normally boisterous renderings taking a dark, almost photorealistic quality to convey the mood of the story, with gorgeous blacks laid down by inker Danny Miki. But once the three-way pathos between MJ, Peter and Mephisto (who used to be just a demon who ruled over a Hell-like dimension but now, based on his references in the script, is fully realized as the Judeo-Christian Devil, battle with God and all) was over, the “brand new day” result is … sickening.

I can understand eliminating the relationship of MJ and Peter to undo the damage caused by his identity reveal during “Civil War” (which got Aunt May shot in his stead, among other things). But how does this eliminate Pete’s growing up despite not getting married? In the end sequence (where he awakens from sleep after sealing the deal with Mephisto), Peter is back living with Aunt May, riding a bike, acting like a teenager again. He attends a surprise party for Harry Osborn, at which he encounters MJ (who is mad at him for some reason), is referred to by Harry as “same ol’ boring Peter” and … and .. ARGH! What the hell? How did we suddenly flip back to late-1960s Peter Parker?

I’m sure over the next arc (”Brand New Day”), we’ll discover what events in Peter’s life occurred differently without his marriage to MJ, but I definitely don’t care to find out what those are, er, were. It’s ludicrous. It unnecessarily wipes out decades of continuity. Yes, I know I continue to beat the dead horse here. I’m fine with retcons when they attempt to go back and explain things that were SHOWN in older stories (and yes, that includes Phoenix’s resurrection, and, I can’t believe I’m about to say this, even the Spider-Clone saga, which at least had its basis in 20 years of Spider-history). But when those stories are basically rendered moot? We already have an “Ultimate” Spider-Man for newer readers to be unencumbered by 45 (!) years of continuity. Do we really need a “mainstream” Spider-Man to do the same?

Sigh … well, that’s it. I’m going to probably hit the X-Men titles late tonight or tomorrow afternoon, so if there’s anything interesting to come out of those, I’ll let you know. I think I’m going to take a nap and dream of a Peter David-written Spidey …

Oh, unrelated (sorta): My Jack Kirby lot on Ebay sold today after a brief bidding war. So you missed out on some classic Demon & Kamandi comics for only $9.39. Stay posted to the Pop! Goes the Icon comic store for more Ebay deals. There’s a decent Marvel lot of 12 up there right now if you’re interested …